From a hot and humid Pune, the Indian team will witness a welcome change in temperature in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh as the hosts face their nemesis New Zealand at the picturesque HPCA Stadium on Sunday, October 22 in the top-of-the-table clash. India have been sensational in the tournament so far restricting the opponents with the ball and making mockery of the targets with the bat. The approach which skipper Rohit Sharma has been on about in the last couple of years is finally being implemented by himself and Dharamsala will provide him another opportunity to get a fast start with small boundaries, flat pitch and rapid outfield.
However, the inclement weather might affect the potential blockbuster clash as it did in the previous game at the venue between the Netherlands and South Africa. And the forecast for Sunday is very similar to the one on Tuesday during the SA-NED game, which eventually was reduced to a 43-overs-per-side clash. As per Accuweather, the probability of precipitation stands at 42 per cent at daytime with 25 per cent of thunderstorms. However, as the day progresses the probability of rain reduces to 5 per cent in the evening.
Hence, it suggests that there could be a delayed start or rain interruption could take place in the first couple of hours at the start time. And if the rain delay exceeds 60 minutes, overs will start getting lost. The radar gets better in the evening with little to no rain but cloud cover is set to remain throughout the day. The temperatures will hover around a high of 19 degrees and a low of 12 degrees. It will be a cold day in Dharamsala and with the onset of winter, there will be dew as well which means the teams will be tempted to bowl first.
However, as the SA-Ned falsified the myth and other games have proven that if you get 320-330 plus scores batting first on good wickets, it gets difficult to chase. India have chased in all their matches so far but the New Zealand bowling attack will be a completely different gravy to taste.
